Hansard: NA: Unrevised Hansard

House: National Assembly

Date of Meeting: 16 Aug 2016

Summary

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Minutes

 

                                          Memorandum from the Parliamentary Office                                             

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

FOR ORAL REPLY

QUESTION 105

DATE OF PUBLICATION OF QUESTION PAPER: 16/08/2016

(QUESTION PAPER 19 OF 2016)

Prof B Bozzoli (DA) to ask the Minister of Higher Education and Training:

(a) What are the names of the nine South African universities whose finances are distressed as recently identified by the Council for Higher Education and (b) what is the extent of their financial distress?                                   

NO1826E

REPLY:

 

I requested the Council on Higher Education (CHE) to advise me on the question of a regulatory framework for university fees. The CHE undertook a study to inform its advice using the 2014/15 audited income and expenditure accounts of universities as a baseline. This was the latest available university data when the modelling was done.  The study posed the question of what financial position each university would be in during 2016/17 if staff:student ratios had remained constant, remuneration costs had risen in accordance with the Reserve Bank’s wage index, and other operating costs had risen in accordance with the Consumer Price Index for domestically produced inputs and the exchange rate for imported inputs. The modelling incorporated the compensation grant provided over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for the 0% fee increase in 2016.  On that basis, it found that 16 universities would have had deficits.

 

It should be noted that nowhere in the report does it indicate that nine universities would have had deficits and are now under financial stress. The report does however indicate that 5 universities had operating deficits in 2014/15.

 

In the above hypothetical scenario, the following 16 universities would have had deficits in 2017/18, ranked in order of deficit size starting with the largest and decreasing downwards: 

 

1. Walter Sisulu University
2. University of Limpopo
3. University of KwaZulu-Natal
4. University of the Witwatersrand
5. Tshwane University of Technology
6. Rhodes University
7. University of Fort Hare
8. Cape Peninsula University of Technology
9. Central University of Technology
10. Vaal University of Technology
11. University of Cape Town
12. University of the Western Cape
13. Mangosuthu University of Technology
14. North West University
15. University of Johannesburg
16. University of Venda.
17.  

The aggregate deficit across the 16 universities is projected at R3.97 billion and it should be noted that this list is based on a hypothetical projection.   

 

Compiler/contact persons:  

Ext:

 

 

 

DIRECTOR – GENERAL

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DATE:

 

 

QUESTION 105 APPROVED/NOT APPROVED/AMENDED

 

 

 

 

Dr BE NZIMANDE, MP

MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING

STATUS:

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